3
Dora got bandages and
worked on her husband’s arm and leg. There was a lot of blood. The
first thing the two girls had done was scream. The second thing
they did was start crying. Now they were silent, just watching it,
how their mother was on her knees patching up their father, how
Ryan just stood there with his Winchester. “You shouldn’t have shot
him, mister,” the wife said.
“He shouldn’t have
shot my daughter.”
She just shook her
head, looked at her husband’s wounds again. Griff had his eyes
closed. He’d tried to stand up several times but his wife wouldn’t
let him. He lay on the kitchen floor now with his head propped on
three dishtowels she’d rolled up for a pillow. Tess, the youngest
girl, said, “I don’t like you.”
Ryan said, “Well, I
like you. I like all little girls. Every single one of them.”
“You hurt my
papa.”
“Well, he hurt
somebody I cared about very much.”
“Who?”
“My own little
girl.”
“Tess get over here,”
her mother said.
“How come Eloise
can’t come over with us?”
Her mother said, “The
man won’t let her.”
“How come?”
“Get over here,
Tess.”
“My papa didn’t hurt
nobody,” Tess said, and then kind of ambled over to stand next to
her mother.
Ryan gripped Eloise’s
shoulder tight again and said, “I’m going to walk out of here with
her now, ma’m.”
“No!”
The woman jumped to
her feet.
Her husband’s eyes
opened and the man tried to struggle to his feet. This time his
wife didn’t stop him.
Tess, sensing all the
alarm, started sobbing. “What’s he going to do, Mama?”
“Be quiet.” The woman
glared at Ryan. “No matter what happened, mister, my daughter don’t
deserve to be treated like this.”
“Neither did my
daughter.”
“You let her go, you
bad man,” Tess said.
Griff had now managed
to get himself upright. He was white from loss of blood and
pasty-looking. His eyes didn’t quite focus.
There was blood all
over his clothes. “I told you, Ryan. Take me. I’m the one you
want.”
“No, Griff. This will
be worse. Taking your daughter. Then you’ll know what I’ve been
going through.”
And with that, he
picked the girl up and tucked her under his arm. He was strong
enough to hold her even when she wriggled. He backed out of the
kitchen to the stairs.
To the woman he said,
“I’m sorry about this, ma’m. But it’s the only way.”
Eloise started
screaming.
Ryan got one step
down the back stairs and then two steps and then he moved quickly
out the door.